Supermarkets

Boys Markets--the 54-store Los Angeles supermarket chain built on catering to Southern California's burgeoning minority communities--said Tuesday that it has received a $130.7-million takeover offer, reportedly from a wealthy Mexican family. The announcement comes as the Los Angeles supermarket industry is being shaken by a round of takeovers and mergers.

Supermarket chain Aldi, which plans to open 650 new stores in the U.S. in the next five years, has acquired a 55-acre site in Moreno Valley where it will build its Southern California regional headquarters. Aldi, which is based in Batavia, Ill., will construct an 850,000-square-foot distribution center east of the 215 Freeway at Redlands Boulevard that is intended to serve about 200 stores in the region, real estate brokerage the Klabin Co. said. The price of the land acquisition from Ridge Property Trust was not disclosed.

Two years ago, as online grocers fed with huge amounts of money were sprouting up, a tiny Aliso Viejo service began taking grocery orders over the Internet and making deliveries to buyers in south Orange County. WhyRunOut.com seemed an unlikely rival to huge outfits such as HomeGrocer.com and WebVan Group, which bought fleets of trucks, built big warehouses and made bigger headlines. But WebVan, which took over HomeGrocer last year, posted losses of more than $1 billion before closing Monday.

The logic seems simple enough: the consumption of healthy foods is low, and obesity is high, in neighborhoods where supermarkets are notably absent; so, opening supermarkets in those neighborhoods should boost consumption of healthier foods and drive down obesity. Right? Not so fast, says the first American study gauging the success of a popular initiative aimed at combatting obesity: improving access to fresh produce and healthy food in the nation's "food deserts. " Six months after the grand opening of a new supermarket in Philadelphia, the study found, residents of the surrounding low-income neighborhood were not eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, nor were they less likely to be obese than were low-income Philadelphians across town whose neighborhood continued to be a food desert.

Ralphs Grocery Co. admitted in court Tuesday that it cheated customers at San Fernando Valley supermarkets by overcharging them for items that were marked as being on sale. In a plea bargain with prosecutors entered in Van Nuys Municipal Court, the supermarket chain agreed to conduct price-accuracy training program for employees and to pay $3,500 in fines.

Poor, mostly black neighborhoods face double jeopardy when it comes to supermarket access, according to a study recently published by the journal Preventive Medicine. That may not sound like news at all: Scholars and activists have long fretted that poor, minority neighborhoods have worse access to supermarkets, which is tied to less healthy diets. But researchers from Johns Hopkins University wanted to see how different neighborhood traits -- poverty and racial makeup -- were related to the problem.

British supermarket giant Tesco said it is considering selling its Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market stores and will probably leave the United States altogether. The sprawling retailer, which owns more than 6,000 stores worldwide, has already received inquiries from companies interested in acquiring all or part of Fresh & Easy, Tesco said Wednesday in a statement. Fresh & Easy's chief executive, Tim Mason, is also leaving after three decades at Tesco, the company said. The Fresh & Easy chain launched in 2007 with much fanfare and high ambitions of creating a network of hundreds of smaller-format stores on the West Coast.

The "Hamburger Hoax" (June 14) deserved no more coverage than this childish action was given. There was a statement in the article, however, which gives me cause for concern, and which may deserve further investigation. According to police accounts, the plastic finger was discovered in the hamburger "as it was about to be repackaged." Why would this meat be repackaged and not disposed of? If it was because the package had been opened, was it intended that steps be taken before repackaging to assure there was no contamination?

A subsidiary of Grupo Gigante, one of Mexico's largest supermarket retailers, will officially open its first Valley store and only the second in the United States here today. The 52,000-square-foot store has a meat market, a bakery, a large selection of fruits and vegetables, and Latino-themed products, said Justo Frias, president of Gigante USA, which is based in Santa Ana and Tijuana. The chain is opening in a store in the 9700 block of Woodman Avenue formerly occupied by a Lucky supermarket.

Talks between the union representing 70,000 Southern and Central California grocery workers and three major supermarket chains resumed, with discussions expected to continue today. Federal mediator Peter J. Hurtgen has asked both sides to refrain from public comments on the talks. Negotiations broke off Nov. 23, when the United Food and Commercial Workers union announced that 8,000 Teamsters union members would honor UFCW picket lines. The UFCW struck Safeway Inc.'

For Los Angeles residents, the perfect holiday gift this year might have been a reusable grocery bag. On Wednesday, large grocery stores will be prohibited by law from providing free plastic bags. Shoppers will be required to bring their own bags when stocking up on food and goods, or pay 10 cents per paper bag provided by the grocery store. Smaller independent markets and liquor stores that sell groceries will become subject to the ban July 1. In backing the new law, Los Angeles City Council members cited concerns that the flimsy disposable bags often end up on city streets and eventually find their way to the ocean, where they threaten fish and wildlife.

MOSCOW -- The death toll from a supermarket roof collapse in Latvia's capital rose to at least 47 Friday and many other people remained missing or were injured, officials said. “There are still from 25 to 30 people inside [under the rubble] and we hope that somebody can still be saved,” Riga Mayor Nils Usakovs told reporters in televised remarks. “But we must understand it will be difficult.” Part of the Maxima XX supermarket's roof collapsed Thursday at about 6 p.m., killing and injuring scores of customers inside the popular store at the end of the work day, Yekaterina Zorina, a correspondent for Rossiya-24, a Russian news television network, said in a phone interview.

MOSCOW -- A supermarket roof collapsed and killed at least four people Thursday night in Riga, the capital of Latvia, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Three bodies of customers were discovered by rescue workers, one of whom was also killed, authorities said. At least 30 people are injured, and as many as 70 more people may be under the debris, according to the mayor of Riga, Nil Ushakov. The BBC reported that the dead rescue worker was a firefighter. The store, Maxima XX, collapsed "like a house of cards," said Deputy Mayor Andris Ameriks.

Poor, mostly black neighborhoods face double jeopardy when it comes to supermarket access, according to a study recently published by the journal Preventive Medicine. That may not sound like news at all: Scholars and activists have long fretted that poor, minority neighborhoods have worse access to supermarkets, which is tied to less healthy diets. But researchers from Johns Hopkins University wanted to see how different neighborhood traits -- poverty and racial makeup -- were related to the problem.

Traditional Southern California supermarkets, already facing growing competition from leviathan discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target, are now catching blows on another flank as markets catering to environmentally conscious foodies proffer local fare in laid-back settings. Souped-up gourmet stores like Whole Foods Market long ago claimed a big share of the grocery business. But today it is smaller neighborhood stores, which aspire to offer customers top-drawer local fare, that are crowding in on the action.

It was California's first time in a huge Powerball jackpot. But the winner ended up being in Florida. Someone in the Sunshine State managed to nail all six numbers in Saturday night's $600-million Powerball jackpot. That golden ticket was sold at a supermarket in Zephyrhills, near Tampa. The identity of the winner has yet to be announced. But two California players who picked five of the six numbers will each win $2.3 million, lottery officials said. The winning California tickets were sold at 7-Elevens in Taft and San Jose, said California Lottery spokesperson Donna Cordova.

Re "Filling in 'food deserts,'" Opinion, Nov. 5 The last time I checked, markets -- whether they be Vons, Tesco or liquor stores -- are businesses, not government agencies. Yet this article has a subtext -- that stores need to service poor neighborhoods. They don't. The reason that big food chains pulled out of these areas is blatant. The only obligation that any business has is to provide a safe environment for its employees and show a profit.

It has been said that no institution in the United States tells us as much about ourselves as the supermarket. The graying of America, the move toward a service-oriented economy, the emergence of new ethnic groups and the expanding role of women in the labor market have all had an impact on the supermarket shelf. Today, the leading supermarkets tell us that consumers are no longer dominated by national brands or tastes.

To your grocery list, add electricity. Kroger Co., the country's largest grocery store owner, with chains including Ralphs and Food 4 Less, plans to install a total of 225 vehicle charging stations at 125 supermarkets in California and Arizona. San Francisco-based Ecotality Inc., which operates the nation's second-largest network of public electric charging stations for vehicles, announced Monday that it would handle the installation. Kroger, based in Cincinnati, said it would invest about $1.5 million to install Ecotality's Blink charging stations and DC Fast Chargers.

Jack Greene Grand Ole Opry star sang hit 1960s tune Jack Greene, 83, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star who earned fame with the late 1960s hit "There Goes My Everything," died Thursday at his Nashville, Tenn., home from complications of Alzheimer's disease, a Grand Ole Opry spokeswoman said. The plaintive ballad showed off his deep voice, made him a star and earned him Single of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Assn. in 1967. The song inspired thousands "who had lost loved ones" to write him, Greene later said.